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I’m back at it after what seemed like a roller coaster of 2 years of ineffective writing, organization, and unrealistic goals. My emotions were too deeply involved in this paper after my grandfather passed away in 2012, who always would tell me “Get all the education you can, no one can ever take that away from you, Chyna!” Now, this paper shouldn’t take more than 2 months to complete (theoretically anyway) since I’ve written one that had been deemed ‘graduate level work’ in undergrad. But here I am. Thesis not complete – STILL!

Instead of beating myself up like I have been in the past, I’m taking a more active approach, looking for inspirations, and just getting this thing done!! I am finished dealing with the emotional roller coaster I let thesis become from 2012 – 2013. No more deep insights followed by moments of ecstasy, which initiated moments of despair that led to apathy. Pretty crazy stuff it was. Once I was able to look at this from an outsiders perspective I realized this toxic cycle was enough for me. December 2013 brought this on, not sure why, I just thank God! Now, I have a clear plan, a realistic timeline, and a great support system of family, friends, advisors, and a great motivational music compilation to keep me going – and plans to prevent this cycle from repeating again. Lil Wayne’s Tie My Hands was inspiration while I wrote my UG thesis – and so again, I revert to it to keep me going! Blog posts will follow more regularly again regarding the usual – thesis, football, life, kittens, insightful lists of random things, you know, a few of my favorite things!

I end this quote-post with the promise, and hope of good things to come beginning this month! Also, for the record, I’m betting on the Saints (underdogs come through when it’s down to the wire like this!), the Luck-y Colts, the 9ers, and the Broncos for this weekend’s Playoff wins. Some of these are more hopeful than realistic, but I’ve been 2/3 so far – and I think my odds are due to improve!

What has this month/new year made anyone else realize or inspire to accomplish?!

“Yes I know, the process is so much stress, but it’s the progress that feels the best!” -Lil Wayne, Tie My Hands from Tha Carder III

Excited for August!

Since my #thesisrevivalmission has been delayed (not to my surprise…) I have a new REALISTIC goal…

Complete my thesis by the 95th 2013 PGA Championship at the Oak Hill Country Club… or I can’t attend 😦

After having been offered an interview with the PGA, and having turned it down because another job came up first that I committed to, I figured attending the Championship game in Rochacha (Rochester, NY) can be my reward for “getting thesis done, defended and submitted to 2 conferences (NCA? and ICA)“.

In the meantime, I might even take golf lessons so I can do more than volunteer as the “shot girl” at the J.P. Tracy Golf Tourney this summer 😉 Oh, I should write about that too!

Well, day 2 was quite unsuccessful. I see a pattern here and it’s making me nervous!

Today, my Library reminder tells me my Rq’s and H’s need to be finalized… working on it! Will post when complete.

Besides this I plan to print out my business cards for a conference beginning tomorrow night, apply for few jobs my lovely mentee told me about today from the career fair, and write a post about mentorship– a topic that keeps coming up in my life this week.

I plan to have all of this done by 10pm… and gym too if I’m feeling better! 🙂

Results of day 1- 1. Completed the understanding expectations outline and sent to advisor. 2. Revised the timeline and sent to advisor. 3. Rewrote abstract! 4. Learned 2 new words that I love! (personal accomplishment haha) 5. Went to bed early!

Okay, not the most accomplished day I’ve ever had but I’m off to a promising start!

Day 2 has been complicated to say the least. There is a career fair tomorrow so most of today has been spent preparing for that. Ill let it go this time but hopefully Day 3 will allow more time to be spent on thesis.

The success ratio has completely inversed because of this whole “prepare for life after school” game! :p

As I review my review of literature for my thesis tonight, I have realized that I need to revert back to my outline and review, rewrite, and revise a lot! #boo

This brings me to a topic I was recently speaking about with a dear friend –

How do you wrap your head around going “backwards” in life to move forward?

Even though I have been at my thesis for too long now, I know going backwards, thought it is time consuming and feels like I am losing ground, really is necessary for me to move forward with it… at least in a direction that is more direct, concrete and interesting!

And, such is life.

It sometimes is important to stop, take a step out of your own shoes and look at the direction of own your life from an outsiders perspective. I know it killed me having to leave the city in which I went to college and, so it felt, move backwards to save money – moving back home with mom. Turns out, this has been a great opportunity for me to look at the direction in which my life was heading… and made me realize that perhaps I was not heading in a clearcut direction for my career while living in that city. At least not quite the direction that was right for me just out of grad school. In other words, I was thinking that my life needed to follow the path similar to my peers. In reality, this was silly. Everyone has their own path to follow, no two are exactly the same!

While I am still trying to figure my vocation and path out, I don’t regret moving “backwards” to help me re-evaluate my thesis or my life!

I invite any readers to offer their own experiences in moving backwards in life, on a project, or anything related and share how it worked out, or didn’t and what you learned! 🙂

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Masters Thesis Completion & Grandpa’s would-be 100th Birthday!

The Submission, Defense, and acceptance of my M.S. thesis to be presented at the 100th anniversary of NCA.April 24th, 2014

The big day is here! Today marks the would-be 100th birthday of my Grandfather who passed away in 2012. He saw my graduation pictures when I "walked" in May 2012 for my Masters degree, but passed away before I officially completed. After some major life changes, I was sidetracked. This is something he would be so proud of, and so it will be completed, presented (defended), and submitted for acceptance to the National Communication Association's 100th Anniversary Conference by his would-be 100th birthday! #Motivation